Over 6 million car accidents occur in the U.S. each year.  And according to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over 3 million of these accidents result in injuries that often lead to chronic pain and suffering.

The most common injury sustained during a Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) is a Whiplash injury.  A Whipash injury is when your head accelerates and decelerates abrubltly jerking the head when your car is struck form the side , front, or back.

The signs of a Whiplash injury are often delayed.  Frankly when I ask patients if they had had any accidents they often think their 'Little' fender bender didn't cause an injury.. but some new research should make you think twice about that.

Some of the signs of a whiplash injury, according to Wed MD, include:

Neck pain, stiffness, headaches, midback pain, shoulder or shoulder blade pain, dizziness, arm numbness, ringing in the ears, difficulty concentrating, irritability, sleep disturbances, fatigue... and the list goes on and on.

Even if you only had a stiff neck after an MVA you might be in for bigger problems down the road if an upper cervical (neck) misalignment goes undetected, according to one study.  An upper neck misalignment, if uncorrected can set of an inflammatory proces in the body and lead to chronic conditions like fibromyalgia.  Sometimes the symptoms are slow to come on and you don't even realize what the root cause is.  (especially if you are like my average patient who thinks the lil accident didn't cause a problem).

One study shows that a 6.7 mile per hour collision can cause over 10G's of force to go into the neck... more than enough to cause a problem.

I will be sharing much more on this topic in future posts.  If you have been in an accident I encourage you to get checked!

Blessings,

Dr. Geoff Besso, D.C.  Stow, OH   330-689-1234